The back-pedalling took place the same day. South Africa said Tuesday, April 25, that it will not leave the International Criminal Court (ICC), after having communicated to this effect a few hours earlier.

“The Presidency wishes to clarify that South Africa remains a signatory to the Rome Statute (…) This clarification follows an erroneous comment at a press conference by the ANC [the African National Congress, the ruling party ],” the presidency announced in the evening.

President Cyril Ramaphosa first announced on Tuesday that the ANC had demanded that the country, criticized since the start of the war in Ukraine for its proximity to Moscow, leave the ICC. “The ruling party has made up its mind, considering it prudent for South Africa to withdraw from the ICC,” he said at a press conference following a visit by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö after an ANC meeting over the weekend.

The ICC, based in The Hague (Netherlands), issued an arrest warrant in March against Russian President Vladimir Putin for the war crime of “deportation” of Ukrainian children. But Pretoria is due to host the Brics summit in August, of which Russia is a part. A member of the ICC, South Africa is supposed to arrest the Russian president if he enters its territory. The question of whether Pretoria will arrest Vladimir Putin is “under study”, said the head of state, during his first announcement of the day.

A withdrawal attempt in 2016

Russian President Vladimir “Putin can come to this country at any time,” ANC Secretary General Fikile Mbalula said earlier at a press conference. “The ICC does not serve the interests of all, but of the few,” he added.

South Africa had already wanted to withdraw from the ICC in 2016 after a visit by former Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir. Pretoria had refused to arrest the latter, also subject to an arrest warrant from the Court. But Pretoria’s withdrawal had been thwarted by the country’s judiciary, which had ruled that such a decision would be unconstitutional.

Even in the event of a withdrawal, South Africa would have been under an obligation to arrest Vladimir Putin, if he went to the BRICS summit, because a withdrawal from the ICC would take more than a year to be effective from from the date of the official announcement of his departure. The procedure involves “a rigorous parliamentary process, we would still be bound by our obligations at the ICC for twelve months after the communication of our withdrawal”, underlined Nicole Fritz, director of the Helen Suzman Foundation, which campaigns for the defense of human rights. .

African diplomatic power, South Africa has refused to condemn Moscow since the start of the war in Ukraine, claiming to adopt a neutral position to be able to “play a role in the resolution of conflicts”, Cyril Ramaphosa once again explained , indicating that he had met several times with Mr. Putin. The country also hosted naval exercises with Russia and China off its coast in February, sparking “concern” on the international scene.

Ties between South Africa and Russia date back to the apartheid era, with the Kremlin supporting the ANC in the fight against the racist regime.